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How to find articles in the San Jose Mercury News and the archives

Recent Stories

Most recent articles published on MercuryNews.com are available for free. You can search recent articles using the site search located at the top of MercuryNews.com.

Mercury News Archives

Use the form at right to search Mercury News stories back to June 1985. The archive includes staff-written articles, obituaries and editorials but does not include wire service stories, stories from other papers, photographs, calendar items, or advertisements (including paid funeral notices). Generally, the material is current 24 hours after publication.

Searches are free, and you will receive a list of matching articles. Each listing includes the headline, date of publication and the beginning of the article. There's a $2.95 fee if you want to get the full text of an article on your screen. To view stories you must create an account with NewsLibrary, the service which makes the archive available through the internet. By setting up an account, your credit card number will be kept on file so that you will not have to enter it each time you wish to retrieve the full text of an article.

Article reprints from the Mercury News or Mercurynews.com are handled by the YGS Group at 1-888-414-4534.

For articles currently posted on Mercurynews.com, you may simply click the "reprint or license this" link located on the top or bottom of the article.(The link will not appear on articles that the Mercury News or Mercurynews.com does not have the right to sublicense.)

For articles no longer published on Mercurynews.com, you can still call the YGS Group. Please provide the headline, author, newspaper name and publication date. You can find that information through our archives search form at right. There is no charge for a search, although there is a fee to retrieve the full text.

You generally do not need permission to post a text link only to the article or multimedia presentation on Mercurynews.com. We reserve the right, however, to revoke permission at any time for such text links. Mercurynews.com does not allow framing or the use of its logos or graphics.

For wire services stories and syndicated material (columns, comics), you must get permission from the original source.

All other permissions are handled by the Copyright Clearance Center. Permission is needed to do things such as:

Photocopy articles for academic coursepacks and classroom handouts

Use articles in e-mail, intranet/extranet/Internet postings

Republish articles into a book, journal, or newsletter.

To obtain instant permission to use content, go to www.copyright.com and click on Find Title or call Copyright Clearance Center at (978) 750-8400.

Sometimes the Mercury News' online archive may not be the place to find the information you need. If the information you want appeared in the newspaper before June 1985, you will need to do some historic research yourself. For more details on how to research Mercury News articles from before 1985, click here.